<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>the bats of the republic by jammingkambing</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26339548">the bats of the republic</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jammingkambing/pseuds/jammingkambing'>jammingkambing</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra, Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Avatar &amp; Benders Setting, Gen, Republic City, airbender!dick, earthbender!damian, nonbender!bruce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:14:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,298</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26339548</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jammingkambing/pseuds/jammingkambing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Now, Robin," Father says.</p>
<p>Damian pushes, and the earthen wall obeys. With one move, he makes gives Batman and Robin an impromptu entryway and gives the thugs on the other side of the wall concussions and broken bones as the stone slams into them.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Three Bats in an Avatar!AU doing what they do best: beating up the bad guys.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bruce Wayne &amp; Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson &amp; Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson &amp; Damian Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the bats of the republic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is a very persistent gust of air pushing Damian's hood back. Damian would think it's the night breeze of Republic City, greeting its protectors perched up on high, but a) aforementioned protectors aren't posing on a windy rooftop--as they're currently stationed outside a decrepit motel--and b) the gust only appears whenever Damian puts his hood up.</p>
<p>Simple reasoning leads Damian to the logical conclusion. That and Richard's ridiculous grin belies his whole mission.</p>
<p>"Stop that," he declares, as his hood is put up for the fifth time in two minutes.</p>
<p>"I don't know what you're talking about," Richard says, and he adopts an expression of pure surprise. Richard turns to face the motel with its garish neon sign. Damian's hood stays on.</p>
<p>The farce is over within seconds. A current of foul-smelling air buffets him, and the hood is down again. But the wind doesn't vanish; Damian feels the air above his head twisting and curling to form a miniature tornado which hovers on his scalp and throws his hair into disarray.</p>
<p>Richard is issuing soft, tittering laughter from his inane mouth, and Damian feels the strong urge to incapacitate him. </p>
<p>He settles for stealthily opening one of his sand capsules and making the tiny granules fly out and crawl into Richard's tight-fitting uniform. Richard yelps almost immediately.</p>
<p>The radios on their shoulders simultaneously bleat, "Nightwing. Robin. Focus."</p>
<p>"Just something to pass the time, B," Richard says into the radio. He looks up the same time Damian does, both of them staring at the roof of the motel where Father is brooding and waiting. They can't quite see him, far as Father is above the streetlights.</p>
<p>"The deal's being closed," Father says, and Damian knows the exact moment that ten pairs of feet stand up and shove their chairs back in room 17.</p>
<p>A gentle wind blows by Damian's back. Damian's hood settles down on his head without his having to do anything and, reluctantly, Damian recalls the sand back into their capsules.</p>
<p>It isn't long before the first target comes out. Nightwing twitches his fingers--just enough to take the thug's next inhalation, Damian knows--and the thug is sent into a coughing fit.</p>
<p>One of the thug's associates, who Damian can only assume is a fellow Creeping Crystal, comes out and slaps her comrade's back. Says something about the smoking and the coughing making them look bad.</p>
<p>"But I haven't smoked in months," says the first thug."</p>
<p>"Huh?" replies the second.</p>
<p>Father drops down from the roof, prompting shouts from the surprised thugs. There is no scuffle; within seconds, the two thugs are rendered unconscious.</p>
<p>"Go time, Robin," Richard says once Father gives the signal.</p>
<p>"Like I need to be told," says Damian, and they slip out of the shadow of the shabby restaurant and make their way over to the Batman.</p>
<p>The three of them stay close to the east side of the motel, utterly damp and chockful of insects but, most importantly, dark and close to the Triads and, due to proximity, Damian has no problem hearing every sleazy word said and every pathetic step. Gangsters are always so unruly.</p>
<p>But there are two more pairs of footsteps. Silent compared to thugs' lumbering footsteps, feet so light that any inferior earthbender would have not detected them, but Damian knows far too well the rhythm and grace of these steps.</p>
<p>"Two League assassins on the second floor," he says.</p>
<p>"Well, hey, what are the chances that Talia's making a social call?" Richard says.</p>
<p>"Lower than the chances of the Triads leaving alive when the assassins reach them," says Damian.</p>
<p>Father's jaw tightens.</p>
<p>"Nightwing, find and engage the assassins. Robin, we'll clear the Triads. I've called for backup, but don't rely on them. No matter what, we end this tonight."</p>
<p>Richard departs with a burst of wind boosting him upward onto the second floor. Not long after, the characteristic thuds and groans of a fight begin to sound. The thugs hear this, and soon the gritty voice of Shou Shaw--the idiotically named leader of the West Dragons--shouts, "The fuck is going on?"</p>
<p>"Now, Robin," Father says.</p>
<p>Damian pushes, and the earthen wall obeys. With one move, he makes gives Batman and Robin an impromptu entryway and gives the thugs on the other side of the wall concussions and broken bones as the stone slams into them. Surprise is half the battle, Father always says, and it holds true now.</p>
<p>The Triads are only halfway decent benders. Their tendency for acts of brutality inflate their egos and perceptions, but Damian instinctively knows that these are people without training. Discipline. </p>
<p>And they've never dealt with an Al Ghul sandbender before.</p>
<p>He grinds the displaced wall, always, always careful to control the heat and pressure--elbows two thugs while he's at it--until he feels the rough blocks of stone become fine particles. It's not at all the hot yellow sand that any respectable sandbender should use, but Damian can manage.</p>
<p>The wall is reduced into gravel, and the gravel into dust, and the dust swirled around the room by his practiced hand. With their first inhale, the thugs taste the cement and stone. With their second, they cough. By their third, the Batman gets to them.</p>
<p>Soon enough all of the criminal elements in the room are either unconscious, encased in rock or both. And once Damian has settled all the dust, Father pulls off his rebreather and opens his mouth--</p>
<p>"There was no asbestos in the walls," Damian says. "No lead or potentially harmful trace materials aside from conventional cement. The most these men will experience in the longer span of years is a terrifying memory of us."</p>
<p>"I didn't doubt it for a second, son," Father says, a slight curl to his lips. </p>
<p>Then the ceiling falls.</p>
<p>"I get that this is a great bonding moment and all," Richard says, as he jumps up from the rubble. "But, you know, assassins."</p>
<p>They get to work.</p>
<p>Before the sun rises over the smog of Republic City, Chief Gordon drops by with an airship with adequately competent officers and sufficient holding cells. When he sees the three of them, Gordon gives Father a pristine file and a nod. He pats Richard on the shoulder. He takes the longest with Damian.</p>
<p>There is a long moment where the Chief is just rummaging around the various compartments of his uniform and grumbling. At last, he produces a garishly colored packet.</p>
<p>"You need your vitamins," he says, as he hands Damian the packet of fire flakes. Damian would think that it's code or a cipher, but Gordon's voice is soft and muffled by his mustache, and Damian recognizes the brand of fire flakes as Oracle's favorite.</p>
<p>Detective Montoya is noticeably trying very hard to not laugh. Damian scowls at her the way he did at the thugs, and she snorts.</p>
<p>"Your other associates dropped off some people, too. Two deliveries in one night," says Gordon. "Thanks, Bats."</p>
<p>But the roof is empty with no sign of either Batman, Robin or Nightwing. Jim sighs and zips back up to the airship. It could be a worse night.</p>
<p>On the other side of the city, the Batmobile is roaring away with Damian sitting beside Father. Richard is lounging lazily in the back, seemingly content with not having shotgun. It is strange, but welcome, because Richard almost always rides alongside them in his motorcycle and not actually with them. It is pleasant.</p>
<p>At which point it becomes less pleasant once a persistent gust of wind reappears in the Batmobile, pushing Damian's hood down every few seconds. Richard is promptly assaulted by some of the Batmobile's metal plates.</p>
<p>Bruce only sighs: it's been a long night for Republic City's protectors.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ugh. i regret ever doing this--i say while i think about firebender!jason burping fire while waterbender!tim dumps water on his socks. nonbender!cass is better than all of them</p>
<p>thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>